Lament for the Living
by OtherCharacterNut
Summary: The sisters had been on the road since the beginning and grew strong as killers of the dead, but everything changes when a young Carl leads them to the Atlanta Camp. They didn't plan to stay. Then hidden scars come to the surface as overpowering bonds are made with a certain hunter and sheriff. Will they trust in the greatest reason to live and can they survive without it? R&R!
1. Madness

_**Feel the fury closing in…**_

He ran through the trees, hacking at all branches in his way. Most were cut down before scraping at his blackened skin though enough sharp ends reached down and kept his baldhead bleeding. He ran hard down the memorized path, breathing through the pain that still burned his left side. Two packs rocked against the rifle slung over his back. With every jolt, he pushed his boots deeper into the earth to maintain speed. He kept his serrated machete firmly in his hand and glared at the lack of blood. He should have pressed forward. He should've fought for the upper hand. His weapon should be dripping with bright red blood.

Survival of the fittest, the man told himself. Survive at any cost.

It was the only law of his group, the only thing they needed to understand to cohabitate. People need others to survive, but must fend for themselves. The strong survive and the weak provide. Only this time he didn't steal from the weak. He had lost too much in the fire and convinced his partner they needed to return with something, but found something _else_. Something that was willing to kill and hunt him down for what he stole. He growled with the pain of every step. He should be the predator. He should be the one on the hunt. But the long daggers slicing at his already wounded flesh forced him to run. He would make it to the drop point. He would reload and he would be the one to kill.

At the rock ahead, he pushed himself to jump off with one strong step and landed at the bottom of the slope. Ahead of him was the large tree where he hid some emergency supplies, fatefully the ammo. The man continued on at a sprint, hearing the untiring footsteps of his hunter gaining on him. Nearly reaching the marked trunk, a woman blocked his path and the sight of her caused his feet to immediately stop. It wasn't possible. She couldn't be standing in front of him. There was no way she outran him. Yet she was there, decisively pointing a 9MM at his dark and crusting head.

"Give me the backpacks."

Her honey brown hair was in messy waves and not a strand fell in the dark grey eyes that ceaselessly stared him down. The man narrowed his burned brow and looked closer. Her skin appeared darker than it was due to sweat and dirt, similar to the stains on her flowered lightning bolt tank and dark jeans. There was a single black strap laced across her torso for a double-bladed sword at her back and a knife with a green handle sheathed to her waist. Not to mention the smaller handgun tucked securely in her ankle combat boot. He straightened and gripped his machete tighter. Where was the blood? If this was the same woman, she should be soaked in bright red.

At the sound of footsteps, the man violently turned around and saw her. The same honey brown hair in messed up waves, the same dark grey eyes glaring into him, the same skin dirtied by the wild. Only her dark racerback tank and fading jeans were covered in blood. His partner's blood… Flowing all the way down from her neck to her dark brown boots, still dripping over the high laces. She threateningly twirled her unique, mix-matched blades in her hands as he furiously looked from one to the other. _Identical_. He was being hunted by interchangeable warriors.

In a rage, the man swung his machete at the woman who held him at gunpoint. He knocked the berretta from her hands, but she evaded his attack by dropping to the ground and kicking his feet out from under him. The woman who killed his partner went to stab him, but he blocked her blades with his own and threw her back with a crazed shout. As she stumbled to regain her footing, he went to end the bitch that made him run. He lifted the machete and got a bullet to the back of his head, brains bursting through burnt flesh and seeping into the roots of his drop point.

"Sage? Are you all right?" she hurriedly stepped over the fresh corpse to check on her sister. "Is any of this your blood?"

"No, no, I'm all right." Sage got to her feet, but her other half refused to believe it as she looked for wounds. "Really, Jade, I promise you I'm all right. His friend pinned me to the ground so I had to gut him on top of me." She looked down at her clothes and finished, "It got messy. That's it. I'm fine."

Jade nodded and sighed as she glanced at the thief. Their backpacks were undamaged and waiting to be reclaimed from his lifeless body. She bent down and grabbed the ash colored pack while Sage went for the blue. He had secured them on his shoulders by tangling the second straps on his empty rifle. It kept the packs closed and safe.

"He didn't know what was in here," Sage said as she held the sky blue backpack to her chest. "Out of everything they saw in the car, out of all the crap they could've taken… They grabbed these. He took _these_ and ran."

Jade clung to her backpack and looked inside, closing her eyes to breathe in the contents. "When I saw him running with them on his back I just – I just dropped everything I collected to cut him off. Any other pack I might've let it go."

Sage looked up to the carving on the tree. "Do you think there's more of them?"

"I don't know, but we should probably take what supplies he has stashed here and go."

They dug up the hole and pulled out a filthy athletic pack. It wasn't full, but had several boxes of assorted ammo, matches, a tactical combat axe, five bags of beef jerky, and two full canteens of water. "What do you think?" Jade asked as Sage took a moment to examine it. "We can't say no to ammo and we could use the matches."

Sage flipped her seaxes into their sheaths fastened to her thighs and put the blue backpack safely on her shoulders. "I'll carry it." Jade handed her the supplies and put her own safely on her back. "What about the rifle and machete?"

They looked at his corpse and the weapons lying with him. Jade looked to her sister and replied, "Those we don't need."

As the warriors walked away, they looked back one last time and lifted their heads to the sky. "Inga träd växer till himmelen."

 _ **Are we sisters wearing thin?**_

They watched the road. Still nothing. Sage sharpened her tracker knife while Jade tapped at the steering wheel. It had been nine days. They had foraged and scavenged all they needed in supplies, but were getting restless.

"Mile marker," Jade announced as she shifted upright in her seat. "Please tell me we're outside the city."

Sage rummaged in the glove compartment and pulled out the map. She scraped some of the dried blood off with her fingernail and squinted at the colored lines. "Yes, if we stay off the main highways and keep having luck with these clear roads, we should be out of Georgia and in Tallahassee as early as tomorrow."

Jade looked over at her sister and broke a smile. "We might just make it."

"We will."

As Sage folded the map and shoved it back in place, Jade echoed, "We will."

Luck ran out when a throng of gorgers appeared on the road. Jade slammed her foot on the brake, stopping at their shuffling feet. Dozens turned to face the Expedition… Too many milky glazed eyes peered through the windshield. Gorgers began to reach out and claw at the metal. More and more pressed up on the hood and spilled over to both sides of the SUV. Their hands slammed against the glass and their snapping jaws hungrily groaned.

"There's no way through," Sage yelled over the herd.

"Hang on!" Jade thrust the SUV in reverse and put all her weight on the gas. The tires screeched but escaped the rotting bodies trying to hold on. Jade kept her sight focused on the rear window and followed the road back to the last major turn. Sage kept her sights on the gorgers, readying her sharpened knife for an emergency stop.

They came up to the exit and Jade brought them to a harsh stop, pushing them into drive, and fled the following herd. Sage held her knife to the window and Jade gripped the steering wheel. A few gorgers weaved in and out of the abandoned cars spread over the new road, but they never slowed. Not until they saw a large black dog run through the trees, deeper into the woods.

Jade stopped the car and Sage rolled down her window. As swiftly as it came into sight, it was gone.

 _ **Nowhere to run from all of this havoc…**_

It had been almost an hour of walking through the trees. Jade marking their way while Sage collected leaves. Somehow being in the woods, aimlessly searching for a phantom hound, calmed the unrest inside them. It kept their eyes and ears open. Let them be there without being there.

"MOM!" They stopped cold, digging their boots into the earth. "HELP!"

"No, this isn't our problem," Jade forced the words out of her mouth. "This is not our responsibility."

"AH! MOM! HELP!"

It was a young boy. By the sound of his screams, he couldn't be more than 12 years old. They stared at each other and waited. No sound of the mother. No sound of anyone; just their even breaths and the dead moans to echo his pleas.

"We don't have to risk our lives for him," Sage painfully agreed. "He's not our kid."

"AH! AH! SHANE! MOM! HELP!"

They both looked off in the direction of his terrified voice. Jade gave in and shook her head. "He's someone's kid."

Running deeper into the woods, the sisters listened for any sound from the boy. He screamed again. He was close and so were the gorgers. They bolted through the brush and soon collided with a dark haired kid. He was panting and shaking. Those bright blue eyes gripped Jade tighter than his white knuckled fists clinging to her blue shirt.

"Help me," the boy cried.

Gorgers stumbled through the branches. "We need to move! There could be more!" At her sister's call, Jade turned them around and kept the kid in front of her and the three gorgers at her back. He was too out of breath; at that speed the gorgers would catch up to them. "We need to get him to the car! Now!"

Sage looked over her shoulder at Jade's shout. "There's more to the right!"

"We can take them out! He can't keep running like this!"

The boy began to stumble, but refused to stop. "Hard right!" Sage gripped her knife as she turned and drove it into the skull of a gorger. She quickly yanked it out and jumped over the corpse as it fell. Jade guided the kid forward as she swung her own knife backwards into the temple of a gorger that was getting a little too close. She looked back as it fell to see that after killing two, there were four left.

"We picked one up! Gotta cut them off!"

Sage spun behind a tree and drew her long seaxes. Jade ran ahead and looked down at the breathless boy saying, "Take the keys. Our car is straight ahead. It's a big black SUV parked by some bushes. You can't miss it. Lock yourself inside. Go!"

He obeyed. Once Jade saw him open the door, she turned around and readied her double bladed sword. The gorgers had just reached the tree Sage was waiting behind. She skillfully sliced the first gorger's head in half, putrid blood and brains spurting into the air and onto her purple shirt. The second came up behind her and Jade charged forward to cut off its head. It was still spinning out blood like a sprinkler as she dug the other blade into a gorger's face. Sage took the last one out by kicking it to the ground, then stabbing it between the eyes. They took a moment to catch their breaths and looked the dead over.

"Three turned into six."

Jade wiped off both sides of her sword and said, "They can't really be forming groups…"

"They are drawn to sound and after the road…"

They shook off the thought as Sage finished cleaning off her seaxes, murmuring, "What do we do with him?"

"Hope he's still got a mom to return him to."

Sage nodded as they headed to the car only to find the boy upright and mouth open in the passenger seat. The sisters slowed their pace to glance behind them. All four gorgers, in pieces and plain sight. He definitely saw everything. They shook their heads and walked on. The apocalypse made you forget how a lot of things used to be… impressionable youth now at the top of that list. He had a wide smile on his face as Sage made him scoot to the edge of the seat.

"You killed all of them!"

They stared at his amazement before turning their attentions to the outside. "Yeah. There were four. Two each."

He looked at Sage and said, "No, there were six. _Three_ each."

"We've taken on more than that when we have to," replied Jade with a shake of her head.

"Really? Wow."

"What's your name, Kid?" Sage asked as Jade started the SUV.

"Carl."

"All right, Carl. I'm Sage and this is my sister, Jade."

His eyes kept darting back and forth between them without blinking. "Sage and Jade. Really?" When they nodded, Carl continued, "Jade and Sage. Do you have names that are the color green because you're twins? So they'd match?"

Jade couldn't stifle a laugh. "Nope."

"Oh, well, I like them."

Jade hesitated for a moment, but gave him a small smile. "Thanks. Carl's a good name to have too. Strong."

He beamed up at them and shifted his way onto the center console. Sage kept herself pressed to the door to give him as much space as possible and asked, "You're not alone are you, Kid?"

"No, I have a camp," he looked down at his hands as they picked at the fraying threads of his pocket. "I was playing hide and seek with Sophia and…I got lost."

"Do you know how long you've been wandering around out here?"

"Feels like hours."

Jade frowned. "And no one found you."

"I'm sure they're looking," Carl answered with a shrug.

Automatically, Jade put the car in drive and headed out onto the empty road. "While I bet your mom and dad are tearing up the forest to find you, we're gonna get you back to camp, okay?" She wanted him to smile, to know that they would get him home, but he shook his head. "My dad's dead." They stared at him and he stared back. "And my mom never finds me because I always find my way back. Until now."

Sage rested her head on the seat as her eyes drifted to the back of the car. Jade was already scanning all of the supplies piled on the seats and the floor. As the car slowed to almost a stop, they reached around Carl and dug into the bags shoved closest to the front. Sage pulled out a candy bar and Jade pulled out a soda. He gazed up at them gratefully before gently taking the gifts.

"Any landmarks you can tell us about your camp?" Jade asked as he took a hungry bite of chocolate. "I'm sure your mom is thinking the worst."

"It's outside of Atlanta, next to a big quarry."

"Big enough to be on a map?"

"I think so."

Sage dug the map out again and tore it open. She was able to find a marked quarry amongst the web of lines and pointed, "Here?"

"Yeah, I think that's it. That's where they are!"

Sage handed it to Jade and said, "I'd say that's about 10 minutes out."

"Which means you've been out here for maybe half an hour and somehow managed to be near a major road. That's really dangerous, Carl."

"Good thing you guys were here."

The twins remained silent as Jade stepped on the gas. After a while, they turned onto something of an access road and Carl was almost done with his soda. As he sucked down the last drops, the boy looked over his shoulder to hopefully find some more cans. Instead, his eyes widened at realizing why he had to sit uncomfortably up front. Jade and Sage glanced at his mesmerized expression and after a moment, decided to let him stare.

The extended backseat was packed with all sorts of supplies. The floor was covered with gym sacks ready to burst with miscellaneous foods and liquids, and duffel bags crammed with clothes, as well as large containers completely full of toiletries, cooking tools, and first aid supplies stacked in the middle. Not to mention the portable generator sitting on the right seat, under and against packs that securely held the few, but coveted electronics and batteries. The left seat had three large duffels strongly and safely strapped down, one on top of the other, each stuffed with their weapons and ammo. Behind these supplies, were more supplies. The third row of seats was put down for more trunk space and was outlined with over a dozen plastic fuel cans. The rest of the trunk held four rows of water bottles stacked by three, four trays of canned goods stacked by two, several boxes of crackers, rice, pasta, and cereal, and _all_ of their camping supplies.

Carl also noticed the ash and blue colored backpacks hanging by the headrests of the driver and passenger seats when he turned back to his saviors. "Is it just you guys? Are you alone?"

Sage nodded. "Just us."

"And you still have all this stuff?"

"We're good at foraging and do our best to save what we can and replace what we use," replied Jade.

Carl stared out the windshield as they turned onto a country road. "Is it hard? Living out of a car? Always moving?"

Jade stubbornly ignored the side glare Sage was giving her and said, "It's better than where we've been. It works for us."

As Sage softly sighed, Carl lifted himself up to be at their eye level. "You could stay with us. You can set up your tent next to mine and park your car next to Shane's jeep. I know my mom will want you to stay after I tell her you saved me."

"Carl –" they said together, but he stopped them. "If you don't like it then you don't have to stay forever, just stay a little while. It'd be better with us. We'd be safer."

Jade couldn't find the words and Sage couldn't even look the boy in the eye. They were too blue and sad. Luckily, they didn't have to come up with an answer. The dirt road led them right into camp. There was an RV, a few cars, and a good amount of tents. Not a bad set up: high ground with a smart formation of supplies. The people, however, looked frantic.

They tilted their heads toward Carl and Sage asked, "See your mom?"

"Yeah, she's yelling at Shane."

"The dark haired guy?" Jade asked.

Carl nodded. "He was my dad's best friend."

She pulled up to their camp and the moment everyone saw the unfamiliar vehicle, they all pulled out what guns they had…which was much less than half of their own firepower. Neither twin was surprised or worried by this reaction. Carl got out of the Expedition and called for his mother.

"Carl? Oh thank god! Carl!" She screamed and ran to him, gathering the young boy in her arms. "Where were you? I told you not to leave Dale's sight! Are you okay?"

The sisters rolled their eyes. Carl was missing for an hour and his mother had not only supposedly stayed at the campsite, but was also blaming him for getting lost? He's a kid. Kids to do stupid things. It's the parent's job to control the stupid.

"You scared us, little man," Shane said as he knelt down to Carl's eye level. "Don't you run off like that again, okay? Could've gotten hurt or worse."

Carl nodded and turned to see the twins leaning against opposite sides of the hood. "I would've gotten eaten if it weren't for Jade and Sage. They found me and saved me."

Every pair of eyes stared into them, causing a burning feeling in their skin. The sisters briefly waved to match their awkward smiles. Lori got to her feet and hugged a rigid Sage. "Thank you so much! I don't have words… If you hadn't…" She let go and walked over to Jade, taking a tight hold of her hands. "Thank you. If there's anything I can do –"

"They can stay with us," Carl jumped in. "Right, Mom?"

"Oh, um, yes! Yes, of course. You saved my boy! Please, stay. You're more than welcome here."

Jade stuttered and backed away from the mother's grateful embrace. She looked to Sage, but her sister was suspiciously staring at all the people beginning to circle. They were both thinking the same thing. It was too risky for too many reasons. But then they looked at the damn kid and his pleading, puppy eyes.

"We've been searching the woods for almost an hour and you bring him back safe and sound before dinner," Shane interrogated. "How'd you find him? Better yet, how'd you find us to bring him back?"

"Heard him screaming for help. Calling for his mother and some ' _Shane_ ' but no one answered him." Jade glared as she continued; "So we followed his voice, killed the gorgers chasing him, and after Carl pointed out where the camp was on our map we drove him here."

"Any other questions?" Sage snapped.

"Oh, oh, oh!" A broad, sleeveless man with thinning hair and a strong jaw laughed from the back of the group. "Looks like Carl found himself a couple of spicy mommas! Mmhmm. Love me some hotsy totsy pieces o' ass like you in the group, hunnies. I mean, what man hasn't had the twin fantasy? That's one I'd like to live out."

"Shut up, Merle!" Shane shouted as a younger sleeveless man whacked him with an arrow.

The sisters brushed it off and Sage said, "We don't get involved. Today was an exception, with Carl being a kid and all. End of story."

Shane nodded and backed off a bit. "Look, I didn't mean to sound ungrateful. I just don't know you and with the world the way it is now… Gotta be even more distrustful of strangers. I love Carl like he's my own, so thank you for saving his life and bringing him back to his mom."

Jade looked over at Carl talking to a little blonde girl with his mother's arms wrapped around his shoulders. Sage kept her eyes on the tall, rugged man saying, "Filling in the dad role, huh?"

"He told you?" At his whisper, they both nodded. "He was a good man."

"Carl misses him," Jade said as the boy walked in between the sisters and took their hands. "Come on. I'll show you where you can set up your tent."

"And I'll help get your stuff." At Shane's words, Sage instantly looked to Jade who took out the keys and locked the doors. He glanced back at them as the rest of the camp got curious and started looking through the windows. Soon, the twins heard a lot of, 'Holy shit's and 'Oh my god's.

A blonde woman griped, "Are you kidding me? They have all of this and have the nerve to lock the car? If they're gonna stay then they're gonna have to distribute at least half. This could take care of all of us for a month!"

"Easy, Andrea. We all don't know each other yet and we don't know if they're going to stay with us or not," an older man with a tan hat – _Dale?_ – responded.

"Seriously? They have more than enough to spare!"

"Maybe if we asked them, they'd share just some of it?" a younger blonde said.

More and more of the group joined the argument and none looked in their direction, so the sisters prepared for a lot of explaining about why they had no intention of sharing. They looked at the spot Carl picked out for them: trees to protect their back, a place to park the Expedition up and to the left, Carl's tent a little off to the right… and the dirt road leading out of camp straight ahead. Everyone continued to yell and yearn over the supplies while Carl expectantly looked up at his saviors. Jade and Sage locked eyes and with a defeated exhale they told Carl, "One week."

 _ **Nowhere to hide from all of this madness, madness, madness…**_

Jade's boots rhythmically thumped against the cement wall. One heel after the other, marking each beat with the blood splattered on her ankle-high shoes. She curled her fingers over the roof's ledge and stared at her legs dangling in the open air. Too many of the dead were stumbling about below, like ants on a kitchen counter looking for anything to eat. Jade closed her eyes and hung her head back, breathing in the humid air.

"How long are we gonna be stuck here?" Sage groaned. Jade curved her head to look at her sister lying across the ledge. Her arms lazily rested over her stomach while her crossed legs kept tensing. Sage wanted to get up, to run and fight, but there was nowhere to go. Not yet. So she asked again, "How long until we go?"

"Back to camp or back to the road?"

"At this point I'd settle for either," she tilted her head back to look Jade in the eye. "But we did say we'd leave in a week. And now we're in the city with these people for a supply run _we_ didn't need to make."

"You really think he's gonna let us leave?"

"We made that deal well over a week ago," Sage said as she settled back into her relaxed position. "Besides, I'm not against stealing Carl away in the middle of the night."

"That's you're solution? Kidnapping the kid?"

"It's not like they'd be able to find him. They need us for that! Kid runs off more often then he doesn't anyway; maybe he'd want to come. Then it's not kidnapping. It's just getting gone."

Jade stopped bumping her feet against the outer wall and looked out across the buildings. "If we're gone, it's just us. We can't bring Carl."

Sage kept her eyes closed and sighed, "I know."

"We should've left after a week."

"We should've left the next day."

Jade swung her legs over her sister and touched the roof with her toes. She stared at the blood on her boots. No longer dripping, but not completely dry. The gorgers grew louder and began moving faster. Sage rolled her neck to see all the way down to the street. More were gathering by the tank. Something must have gone through.

"Do you hear that?" Jade asked as she jumped down to walk the length of the roof.

"What?"

"Sounded like a helicopter."

Sage sat up and watched the sky with her sister. "I don't see it. Do you still hear it?"

"No." Jade came back and leaned her ribcage over the ledge, burying her face in her hands. "I think this look-out thing is driving me crazy."

"Hold that thought," said Sage at the sound of a neighing horse. They both stared below and saw a man on a strawberry roan get swarmed by gorgers on all sides. Its whinnies turned to screams as they grabbed the poor horse and pulled it down. The man fell off, watching the gorgers plunge their hands and teeth into the helpless animal while fighting off the ones that couldn't get close enough to eat it. He crawled away and left everything behind. In seconds, he was under the tank and gorgers crawled after him. There was no way out. Gunshots fired from underneath. They waited to hear him scream as the gorgers filled their bellies with his flesh. Instead, they heard a shot from inside the tank.

"What's going on? I heard shots!" Glenn yelled as he ran onto the roof.

Jade waved him over and said, "You're not gonna believe this!"

"What?" Glenn situated himself between the girls and his mouth dropped at the gruesome sight below. "What the hell happened?"

"A guy rode in on a horse," Sage pointed to the feeding frenzy and finished, "Then crawled into the tank."

"Wait, he's _in_ the tank?"

Jade couldn't stop herself from laughing. "Yeah! Idiot trapped himself in a damn tank!"

"You can't make this shit up!" Sage laughed with her sister.

Glenn stared at them and couldn't quite bring himself to laugh. However, they all brought their attention back down when the man appeared out of the hatch. He dazedly looked at a bag being walked over in the street until gorgers lamely climbed their way up and he was forced to close the hatch. Sage's gaze widened as more and more gorgers poured in. Whatever opening they might've had to leave the city was gone.

"Glenn? What're you doing?" Jade asked.

He took the walkie out of his backpack and replied, "There's a radio in the tank, right? So we can talk to him."

"Why?" the twins asked simultaneously.

Glenn fiddled with the frequency and said, "To help him get out."

They stared at the young Asian in a baseball cap like he just said he would lift the tank on top of the building with his mind. Still, Glenn was determined and walked back to the ledge with the twins on either side of him. No sign of the man trying to get out and no more gunshots. He was still in there. He was still alive.

"Hey you. Dumbass. Yeah, you in the tank. You cozy in there?"

 _ **Madness, Madness, Madness…**_

* * *

 _song by Ruelle  
_

I think I wrote this chapter at least three times and all were completely different! However, I must say that I am finally pleased with how it turned out and I hope that you agree! I also hope that you continue to read as there is SO much to reveal about my OCs and I am very excited to write their journey (and interactions) with all of our beloved Walking Dead characters. If you enjoyed or are intrigued, please review as I love positive feedback and creative ideas. It is greatly appreciated! Thanks! See you next chapter :)


	2. Guts

**FIRST** : Thank you to my followers and those who faved my story after only one chapter! I hope you continue to read and I look forward to my first review :)

 **SECOND** : Here's a few notes for you about this chapter: (1) I won't be having any walkers being able to climb, use rocks to smash glass, practically run, or overly sniff suspiciously as this is the only season they are capable of doing such things. (2) I call walkers, gorgers, because that's what Jade and Sage call them. I promise the longer they're around Rick the more I will use the term walkers, so give me until season two. (3) I am a ridiculously _slow burn_ kind of writer so - for right now - expect some emotional whiplash when it comes to how Jade and Sage interact with the group. Remember, they don't want to bond with the survivors so they're going to fight and contradict themselves on it. I promise they have a _very_ good reason for it (that will be revealed in future chapters) and that, while intentional, it won't be forever. Again, give me until season two for their characters to really start developing lol

Here's _Guts_!

* * *

"Hey, are you alive in there?" Glenn asked when the man inside the tank didn't answer.

Jade scanned the gorgers below to see more and more join in for the feast. She also saw that the more they dropped to the ground to get any scrap of fresh meat, the more they left the tank alone. She looked to Sage and they both saw Glenn already trying to plan the man's escape route.

"Hello? Hello?"

"There you are," Glenn replied in relief. "You had me wondering."

"Where are you? Outside? Can you see me right now?" He sounded oddly… solid. The sisters expected rapid breathing and a panicked voice, but somehow he seemed to be holding it together. For now anyway.

"Yeah, I can see you. You're surrounded by gorgers. That's the bad news."

"There's good news?"

Glenn looked to the twins. Jade raised a wry brow as Sage's lips snarled into a frown; all three of them still leaning over the ledge trying to find the safest path…and there really wasn't one. He clicked on the walkie and answered, "No."

"Listen, whoever you are, I don't mind telling you I'm a little _concerned_ in here."

Jade slammed a palm to her forehead and Sage coughed out a laugh as Glenn said, "Oh man, you should see it from over here. You'd be having a major freak–out."

"Got any advice for me?"

"Yeah, I say make a run for it."

Sage looked to Glenn and asked, "Run where? Unless he's got bullets there's no running."

"That's it?" the man's voice came back through the walkie. "Make a run for it?"

"My way's not as dumb as it sounds. You've got eyes on the outside here. There's one geek still up on the tank but the others have climbed down and joined the, _feeding_ frenzy where the horse went down. With me so far?"

"So far."

"Okay, the street on the other side of the tank is less crowded. If you move now while they're distracted, you stand a chance. You got ammo?"

"In that duffel bag I dropped out there, and guns. Can I get to it?"

"Hell no!" Jade burst out. "Too close to the horse. Even with ammo, he's dead."

"Forget the bag, okay?" Glenn replied. "It's not an option. What do you have on you?"

"Hang on."

They all stared and waited. Sage kept glancing back and forth from the tank to Glenn and finally asked, "You know this can only go one of two ways, right?"

Glenn stared at her and replied, "It's gonna go _one_ way because whether or not he's an idiotic dumbass, you guys aren't gonna let me die. Which means, when I'm down there, you won't let him die either."

"Damn it," grumbled Jade. "Why'd you have to figure that out?"

They smirked at each other as the man came back on the walkie. "I've got a Beretta with one clip, 15 rounds."

"Make 'em count. Jump off the right side of the tank, keep going in that direction. There's an alley up the street, maybe 50 yards. Be there." Glenn looked to the sisters and said, "Stay on the stairs –"

"Hey, what's your name?"

"Have you been listening? You're running out of time." Glenn shoved the walkie in his backpack and started running for the door that would lead them out of the building and into the alley. Sage was right behind him while Jade waited just long enough to see the man knock off the one gorger still on the tank with a shovel. As she sprinted to catch up to them, Glenn shouted, "You guys gotta clear the alley and keep it clear when we run back through, okay?"

"Okay!" Sage promised as the first three shots were fired.

They hurried out of the building and down the back street. Five more shots were fired as they reached the stairs. The sisters climbed up to the bottom balcony and readied their guns. Glenn continued running forward as they heard three more shots ring out. When he got to the metal gate, the man instinctively held the gun to his head thinking he was another gorger. "Whoa! Not dead!" Glenn cried out. "Come on! Come on! Back here!" They ran through the alley and the dead followed them. The sheriff raised his gun and shot two more to slow them down. "Come on! Come on!" Glenn urgently led him to the stairs where the sisters were waiting.

As Glenn began climbing the first few steps, the sheriff went to shoot the gorgers coming at them from ahead. He never fully raised his gun before he saw several get their heads blown in. He turned back to where they came and saw even more get gunned down.

"What are you doing?" Glenn screamed as more shots rang out from above. "Come on!"

He moved faster so the sheriff could start climbing out of the gorgers' range, and once they were both safe Jade and Sage holstered their guns. They stood on either side of the balcony, ready to help them both up. The men were heavily panting, feeling how close of a call it was with every bead of sweat, but they made it. Gorgers began to pile in from both sides, reaching up to grab the stairs, but unable to lift themselves. That wasn't the problem. It was the loud moaning that brought more and more into the alley, until it was completely filled. At this rate, it would take hours for them to wander back out. Another possible exit plan gone to hell.

"Nice moves there, Clint Eastwood," mocked Glenn. "You the new sheriff? Come riding in to clean up the town?"

"It wasn't my intention."

"Yeah, whatever. _Yeehaw_. You're still a dumbass."

The sheriff turned to him and held out a grateful hand. "Rick. Thanks."

"Glenn. You're welcome."

They shook hands and noticed the girls staring at them. Rick turned to his right and nodded his head saying, "Thank you…"

"Jade. That's Sage."

Rick looked over to her as well and finished, "Thank you both."

"You don't have to," replied Sage. "Really."

"No, no I do."

"We would've left you in the tank," Jade explained, catching Rick's eye again. "We were helping Glenn."

"Right, ah, well, I should still thank you." Rick awkwardly smiled at them as he put the Beretta and the one bullet in Glenn's backpack. "You didn't have to help all."

They shrugged back as the gorgers began to press against the stairs so hard, it almost shook them on the balcony. "Oh no," Glenn said when he looked down to see more hands claw at the steps. They all turned to the deadly vertical staircase leading up the side of the building. "Bright side: it'll be the fall that kills us. I'm a glass-half-full kinda guy."

At Rick's worried look, Sage said, "Just hold on tight and don't look too far up."

"Or down, obviously."

He nodded and followed Jade up the steps with Sage behind him. It didn't take as long as he thought to reach the roof. They walked across it to get to another building and Rick saw a bus blocking the entrance. "Are you the ones that barricaded the alley?"

"Somebody did," answered Glenn. "I guess when the city got overrun. Whoever did it was thinking not many geeks would get through."

They all ran over to the hatch to prepare for the journey down into the building to get to their base when Rick asked, "Back at the tank, why'd you stick your neck out for me when they were against it? It would've been safer not to, right?"

"Call it foolish, naïve hope that if I'm ever that far up shit creek, somebody might do the same for me. Guess I'm an even bigger dumbass than you."

As Glenn climbed down into the darkness with Sage disappearing after him, Rick turned to see Jade rolling her eyes with a smile. "We weren't supposed to like him." Rick cocked his head in confusion as she started to climb down. "Something tells me we're not supposed to like you either."

They made it in and out of the building with no gorgers to slow them down. When they got close to their base, Glenn pulled out the walkie-talkie and said, "We're back. Got a guest. Plus four geeks in the alley." They stopped at the bottom of the stairs to see two of the four gorgers notice and hobble over to them. Jade and Sage jumped over the railing, gaining their attention, and drew their blades. Rick watched in amazement as they easily stabbed and sliced the walkers' heads before the other members of the group ran out in padded gear and baseball bats.

Sage wiped off her seaxes on the dead's clothes and said, "He said four. You're not needed until you hear _nine_ or more."

"If you're concerned about the other two, you might wanna hurry inside," informed Jade as she stood and watched them shuffle closer.

"Let's go," Glenn said as they all rushed into the building.

The sisters shook their heads and followed through the back door. However, they didn't continue all the way inside. Jade turned to Sage and whispered, "Did you see any new way to sneak out of the city?"

"None. They're either too packed in one place or too scattered all around. With the amount of people we have, we can't all get out on foot."

Jade frowned at her sister. "Meaning _we_ could get out on foot."

"Yeah, _we_ – meaning you, me… and Glenn – could get out on foot."

"Great, but… what about T-Dog?"

Sage narrowed her eyes. "If you actually want to pick who gets to live and who gets left to die, which I'm fine with, than yeah, T-Dog too. And Morales. He's got kids."

"And Andrea."

"Really?" Sage scowled.

"For Amy. We like Amy."

"Right. And probably Rick."

"Glenn did go through all that trouble for him, yeah."

Sage silently counted and said, "So five besides us."

"Six. We forgot Jacqui."

"That's everybody!"

"No, I'd be willing to leave Merle."

"And face Daryl how?"

It was Jade's turn to scowl. "Fine. Merle too."

"So everybody. We can't leave _any_ of them?"

They both paused and stared at each other completely befuddled. " _How the hell did that happen?_ "

With a relinquishing sigh, Jade and Sage walked the rest of the way into the building… only to find Andrea pointing her gun in Rick's face. They didn't stop at the threshold, but went over to stare her down. Sage's fingers were ready to grab her tracker knife as Jade ordered, "I get where you're coming from, but put it away. Glenn went through too much to save this guy just to have you kill him now."

As the fear washed over her, Andrea lowered her gun and cried, "We're dead. All of us…" she looked to Rick, eyes full of blame and finished, "because of you."

Rick looked around at everyone, lost, and said, "I don't understand."

"Look, we came into the city to scavenge supplies," Morales grabbed him by the arm and pushed him through the hall. "You know what the key to scavenging is? Surviving! You know the key to surviving? Sneaking in and out, tiptoeing. Not shooting up the streets like it's the O.K. Corral!" They all entered the front of the department store to see the glass doors being mauled by hungry gorgers.

"Every geek from miles around heard you poppin' off rounds," T-Dog added.

"You just rang the dinner bell," sighed Andrea.

"Get the picture now?" Morales finished as the gravity of the situation dawned in Rick's eyes.

Dozens of dead hands pounded and clawed against the glass, some so strong that it was beginning to break. At another large crack, the group backed up in a hurry. Sage twisted her neck and watched them try to shield themselves behind the racks of clothes. She knew they weren't busting through. Not in that moment. And there were another set of doors for when they did. They had time. Jade stepped forward, trying to see the weak points. It was the middle, to the right. That door would go first in the domino crash and then the gorgers would sloppily file in. They wailed uncontrollably when she stepped closer, but she was quiet and slow, keeping them from getting too riled up and breaking through faster.

"What is she doing?" Glenn hissed to Sage.

She turned and at seeing his terrified expression, walked over to her friend. "She's checking it out. Seeing how much time we've got before _both_ sets of doors break open."

"I'm going with no more than three hours. And that's putting faith on the second set. First one will go in about one." Jade shifted uncomfortably as they all stared at her, mouths open and eyes wide. "But it's not exactly a science, so, do with it what you will."

"How can you do that? Go right up to the glass like it's nothin?" T-Dog asked, his voice making it clear that he thought she was crazy to even consider it.

"We've been on the road this whole time. You get used to this sort of thing." She looked to Rick and said, "That's how you ended up out here, right? You were on the road too."

"I guess, yeah, I–I'm – I was trying to flag the helicopter."

"Helicopter? Man, that's crap," T-Dog responded in the same tone. "Ain't no damn helicopter."

"You were chasing a hallucination, imagining things. It happens." Jacqui said, but was shut down by Rick's ardent reply.

"I saw it!"

"Hold on!" Jade took a step forward and asked just as ardently, "You _saw_ it? You actually saw the helicopter?" Rick nodded and she continued, "I heard it when we were on the roof! I thought I was going crazy." She turned to Sage and smiled. "He saw my helicopter."

"Yeah, congratulations," Morales mocked before ignoring them to ask, "T-Dog, try that C.B. Can you contact the others?"

"Others? The Refugee Center?" Rick asked.

"Yeah, the Refugee Center. They've got biscuits waiting at the oven for us," Jacqui replied sarcastically.

"Got no signal," T-Dog reported. "Maybe the roof."

Suddenly, gunfire filled the outside air. Sage looked to the ceiling, hands on the hilts of her seaxes. "Merle…" she growled and ran for the stairwell. Jade was right behind her, swinging the sheath of her double-bladed sword to the front of her chest. They climbed all the way up to find Merle standing on the high ledge of the roof, aiming his rifle down on the gorgers in the street. He fired three more shots before the girls came up behind him.

"Merle?" Jade called out to him calmly, not wanting him to turn the firearm in their direction. "Whatcha doin?"

He cocked his head and laughed, "H-Hey there, Sweet Cheeks!" He took another shot and then looked back to see Sage coming up on the other side of him. "Oh goodie! You brought Hot Lips with you! Care to join me?"

They both sneered, stopping their slow steps. Merle was like most of the group when Jade and Sage first decided to stay; he couldn't tell them apart. While the others made an effort (knowing who was who by their weapons or clothes) and some were naturally able to, Merle only cared enough to give them nicknames. So _they_ had no idea who was who. Not for sure as he still mixed them up half the time.

"Gonna take these bastards out sniper style!" he laughed and turned back to see the girls staring up at him with the most unimpressed eyes. Merle looked closer and swayed where he stood. "Hold up, _you're_ Sweet Cheeks aren't' ya?" he wagged a finger at Sage as he started laughing again. "Yeah! Come on, girl! Hop on up here and when we're done Hot Lips can hop on some'in else." Merle winked and took another shot. "Or the other way around. Same to me!"

Sage turned to Jade and said in a hushed tone, "We could just push him." She saw a tug of a smile on her sister's mouth and continued, "We could push him and as the only witnesses we could say he lost his balance and fell."

Jade rubbed her hand over her forehead and replied, "Stop it. It's not nice to dream out loud." She went over to the ledge and called up to Merle, "All right, Nasty-Ass, we'll change your name to Super-Sniper if you come back down. If not, we'll have to push you off."

"That's really not the kinda _off_ I want from you, Hot Lips," Merle laughed and turned back to see Sage climbing onto the railing. "That's it, Sweet Cheeks! Let's get this ball rolling, huh?"

"Oh, shit! Sage! What're you doing? Are you crazy?" Morales shouted as he ran onto the roof. The others followed and expressed their own concern as Merle took another shot – and Sage grabbed the barrel right after.

"Hey!" Merle fought, but when their footing became uneasy he stopped. "Sweet Cheeks, if you're gonna grab my piece it ain't gonna be this one!"

Sage gave him a forced flirty smile as she slunk down to sit on the ledge. Merle chuckled and followed her lead, but before he could lean over her, Jade grabbed the stock of the rifle and brought him the rest of the way down. They stood on either side of him, their unimpressed eyes staring into his crazed ones, and each draped an arm over his shoulders to keep him calm.

"What the fuck, ladies?" T-Dog yelled out to them, the fear for their safety bubbling over. "Are you really this crazy? He could've killed you!"

"Whoa there!" Merle yelled back, reloading the rifle. "Y'all outta be more polite to a man with a gun! Huh? Only common sense."

T-Dog turned his attention to the redneck now walking over to him. "Man, you wastin bullets we ain't even got, man! Endangering our girls and bringin even more of 'em down on our ass! Man, just chill!"

"Bad enough I got this taco-bender on my ass all day. Now I'm gonna take orders from you? I don't think so, Bro. That'll be the day."

" _That'll be the day_? You got something you wanna tell me?" T-Dog challenged, rightly offended by what Merle was saying.

"Hey, T-Dog, man, just leave it," warned Morales through the protests. "All right? It ain't worth it." When they both seemed to calm down enough, Morales said, "Now Merle, just relax, okay? We've got enough trouble."

Sage had climbed back up onto the ledge to see how many of the dead were walking over. It hadn't quite doubled yet, but she could see that an unsettling amount had filled the street. She glanced back at Jade, who was now standing with Glenn and Rick. There was no other way out and they both knew what had to be done sooner or later.

"You wanna know the day?" Merle asked T-Dog, gaining the twins' attention.

"Yeah."

"I'll tell ya the day, Mr. "Yo." Is the day I take orders from a nigger."

"Motherfucker!" T-Dog lunged for him, but Merle was able to shove him off and then struck him in the face with the butt of his rifle. Everyone was shouting, pleading for him to stop. Rick went over trying to get Merle off him, but with one turn he punched Rick in the face, sending the sheriff over the large metal pipe. T-Dog lunged again, but Merle kicked him in the stomach, followed him, and punched T-Dog so hard he knocked his head down on the pipe and fell to the ground. Merle ignored all the cries to get him to stop and just kicked T-Dog over and over.

Jade had come up behind him, quietly unsheathing her double-bladed sword. Sage had gone the long way around to stop in front of him, Airweight revolver at the ready. When Merle sat on top of him to punch T-Dog over and over again in the face, Jade made her move. She quickly grabbed the gun tucked in his belt and threw it low to the ground so it would end up on the other side of the roof. As Merle frantically turned to strike whoever it was, he felt a sharp blade tap his shoulder. He slowed his movements to look up and see Jade firmly holding her sword to the base of his skull.

Everyone held so still it was like they were all holding their breaths. Thunder faintly rumbled overhead as Merle began to chuckle at seeing Sage walk forward out of the corner of his eye. "Pair a lady balls you got," he irately grinned. "Y'all really gonna protect the nigger instead o' one o' yer own?"

" _T-Dog_ is a better man than you could ever hope to be," Jade replied.

"Is that right?" Merle chuckled under his breath as he sent a sneer over to Sage. In one rough swing of his arm, Merle suddenly knocked Jade back, sword collapsing out of her hand as she smacked to the pavement. Sage charged forward, but Merle was already on her, harshly seizing her hand that held the gun. They struggled, Merle grasping her arm so tightly Sage could feel his handprint bruise into her muscles, and then the gun fired. Merle shouted as the bullet burned by his shoulder and wasted no more time in throwing her down next to Jade, taking her revolver in the process. Everyone was screaming and started pleading again, but when he pointed the weapon at T-Dog's head it grew quiet.

Sage lifted herself to her knees and examined Jade. A bruise was already starting to form on the right corner of her jaw where his elbow clocked her. No blood or immediate swelling. They've taken harder hits since the world ended. Hits from men like Merle: strong, angry, violent, wild. Brutes who gave zero fucks. They looked to Merle and saw him spit on T-Dog's shirt, rubbing it in with a dominant shout. They sighed, knowing Merle could've cause a lot more damage if he wanted. They were stupid to get involved without thinking any of it through.

"Yeah! All right!" Merle got back up on his feet, pointing the gun at everyone in front of him. "We're gonna have ourselves a little powwow, huh? Talk about who's in charge. I vote me! Anybody else?" Glenn, Andrea, and Jacqui pulled T-Dog away from him as Merle turned around to see the twins regrouping on their feet. They glared as he said, "Don't worry, Hunnies, I won't hold it against ya."

"Democracy time, y'all!" he declared to the rest of the group. "Show o' hands, huh? All in favor? Huh? Come on, let's see 'em." Morales was the first to raise his hand in submission with the others grumbling at his action. "All in favor?" Glenn was next, then Jacqui with a prominent middle finger, and finally Andrea. "Yeah, that's good. Now that means I'm the boss, right? Yeah. Anybody else?"

Merle was about to turn around to face the twins when Jade came up behind him, pointing the barrel of her Ruger to his temple. "Put the gun down or I'll put you down."

"Awe, don't be like that Sweet Cheeks," purred Merle.

"I never thought I'd say this but, I'm Hot Lips… You… Asshole!"

As Merle started to laugh, Sage looked to Rick. He signaled her to go for her revolver as he readied to knock Merle down with the rifle. She nodded and caught Jade's eye. _Keep him there. Just a few more seconds._

"My apologies, _Hot Lips_! Now, how bout you give me a hand–"

Sage brought her fists down on his arm, causing Merle to drop the Airweight. She was able to grab it as he turned around, thinking he could pin her down, but Rick was right there to strike him hard in the face. Merle hit the roof with a powerful thud and Rick kept him there by kneeling on his face and handcuffing him to a metal rod connected to the pipe.

Rick pulled the grunting redneck to a sitting position as Merle yelled, "Who are you, man?"

"Officer Friendly." Rick revealed the 9MM Jade removed from Merle's pants, making it ready to fire, and said, "Look here, Merle. Things are different now. There are no _niggers_ anymore. No dumb-as-shit, inbred, white-trash fools either. Only dark meat and white meat. There's us and the dead. We survive this by pulling _together_ , not apart."

"Screw you, man."

"I can see you make a habit of missing the point."

"Yeah? Well screw you twice."

Rick clicked the safety off and pointed the weapon at Merle's head. "Oughtta be polite to a man with a gun. Only common sense."

Jade and Sage watched very carefully, and for a moment it appeared as though Merle might be worried. But that wasn't his style. "You wouldn't. You're a cop."

"All I am anymore is a man looking for his wife and son. Anybody that gets in the way of that's gonna lose. I'll give you a moment to think about that." They stared at each other until Rick went to pat him down… finding drugs in his vest pocket. Rick pulled it out and flicked Merle saying, "Got some on your nose there."

"What're you gonna do? Arrest me?" As Merle laughed, Rick went to the edge of the building and threw it over into the empty air. Enraged, Merle shouted, "Hey! What the hell ar'ya doin, man? That's my stuff! Hey! If I get loose, you better pray," he tugged on the handcuffs with no result and kept yelling, "Yeah, you hear me, you pig? You hear me?"

"Yeah, your voice carries." Rick walked down to the corner where Sage had been sitting and leaned against the concrete railing. He balled his hand into a fist to stop it from shaking as Merle kept spitting out the same insult. That is until Sage shut him up by holding her seaxes to his throat. Jade decided to follow the sheriff and leaned on the hot stone next to him. Rick looked over at her and was relieved to see a faint smile.

"Were you a sheriff here?"

"No, I'm a deputy. From up the road a ways."

Jade's smile grew as she shook her head. "Well, you're a sheriff now."

Rick looked at her as she watched the sky's impending grey clouds and then glanced back to see Sage still guarding Merle, her looming blades keeping him quiet so T-Dog could get the help he needed. Jade felt his eyes drift back to her as he asked, "You said you weren't supposed to like Glenn and that you're not supposed to like me either. It goes for all of 'em, right? You weren't supposed to like any of 'em." When Jade nodded, he finished, "Why?"

She met his gaze and hushed her voice like the moans riding the wind. "It's a long story… without an ending."

* * *

The group huddled near T-Dog, who was sitting down across from the calmer, but still handcuffed Merle. They discussed how hopeless the situation was with the few to no options they had. Jade and Sage removed themselves to the corner, trying to figure out their own problems.

"He's gonna be worried," Sage muttered so the rest couldn't hear.

"We told him we'd come back safe and we will. Worrying about Carl worrying about us isn't gonna solve anything." Jade glanced back at all of them, hearing no new solutions. Taking a deep breath, she softly said, "We're gonna have to tell them, Sage."

"How much? Can we really trust them with that?"

They sighed and stared out at the gorgers, frustration tensing every muscle in their bodies. Jade straightened her back and slid her hands off the cooling concrete. "Just the one piece. Unless there's another way out, we're gonna have to. The rest they don't have to know."

"Hey!" Glenn called to the sisters. "We have an idea!"

* * *

Everyone walked down into the subbasement and looked to the yellow stairs leading into the sewer tunnels. Flashlights lit up puddles and pipes, all abandoned in the rank shadow.

"This is it? Are you sure?" asked Morales.

"I really scoped this place out the other times I was here," Glenn answered. "It's the only thing in the building that goes down. But I've never gone down it. Who'd want to, right?"

Glenn looked at the group to see all eyes on him. All except for Jade and Sage. Their eyes stayed fixed down the dark hole. It's when they heard Glenn unhappily say, "Oh. Great…" that they looked up at him.

"We'll go with you," offered Jade.

"Yeah, just the three of us. It's the only group that works."

The young Asian began to stutter at not knowing how to order the twins around. He'd known them barely three weeks, way less than half the time he's known the rest of the camp, but one thing he picked up real quick was that once they set their minds to something… get the hell out of their way.

However, seeing Glenn struggle, Rick said, "Speak your mind."

"Look, until now I always came here by myself. In and out, grab a few things – no problem. Then Jade and Sage want to come and I'm like, cool. They've been on the road, should be easy. But then it becomes this whole group thing and everything goes to hell. No offense." He took a breath and focused on the plan forming in his head. "If you want me to go down this gnarly hole, fine – but only if we do it my way. It's tight down there. If I run into something and have to get out quick, if I bring more than one person they'll get all jammed up behind me and get me killed. So I'll take _one_. Sage."

The sisters nodded, making Glenn relax a whole lot more about leading the mission. "Jade, I want you and Rick out in that store, watching those doors. You're crazy good at killing gorgers and he's got Merle's gun and I've seen him shoot, so I'll feel a lot better knowing you're covering our ass." He looked to Andrea and said, "Besides Sage, you've got the only other gun so you should go with them. Jacqui stays here and Morales in the hall. Something happens, you yell to Jacqui and she yells down to us and we get back up here in a hurry."

"Okay, everybody knows they're jobs." Rick said and gave Glenn a reassuring pat on the shoulder.

Glenn nervously nodded, putting the flashlight in his mouth and making his way down the stairs. Sage spun herself onto the steps after him, keeping her eyes on Jade. There were only two options: find a way out or come back unscathed. Glenn's feet splashed in the puddle and Sage splashed right after him. Once the others knew they were safely down, they ventured off to their designated areas.

Rats squeaked down the pitch-black tunnel with no comforting sound of a machine hum or water running through the pipes. Sage walked into the darkness first, her blades glinting from the flashlight. Glenn stayed close behind her and used her as a shield when a rat came into view.

Sage couldn't help but giggle, "Would you rather find a nest of rats or a gorger?"

"A gorger," hissed Glenn. "Because you'd kill it!"

"I can kill the rat too if you want." They looked around to see that it had scampered out of sight. "When it comes back."

Glenn slowed and whispered, " _When_?"

* * *

Rick, Jade, and Andrea walked back into the front of the department store to see even more gorgers pressed up against the glass. Fists and fingers banging and scraping, rotten mouths snapping and groaning. It was barely loud enough to drown out the sound of the cracking glass now. Jade walked by the manikins, half hiding herself to keep a close eye on the integrity of the doors. Andrea stayed back in the isles of clothes, watching Rick study Jade.

"Sorry for the gun in your face," she apologized.

Rick turned to her and replied, "People do things when they're afraid."

"Not that it was entirely unjustified. You did get us into this."

"If I get us out, would that make up for it?"

Jade walked over to the hats and scarves when they stopped by the jewelry. Rick leaned against the glass counter, steadier than Andrea made herself appear. "No," she heard the blonde reply. "But it'd be a start." Jade rolled her eyes only to meet Rick's challenging ones as the gorgers began to slam their limbs harder.

Rick carefully watched her slow, precise movements over to the manikin on the right side of the door. The glass was spider webbing out, shards getting caught in the dead flesh. He waited for Jade to look back at him and when she did, the curt shake of her head told him they were running out of time.

"Next time though, take the safety off," Rick informed Andrea. "It won't shoot otherwise."

"Oh."

She looked down unknowingly, so Rick asked, "Is that your gun?"

"It was a gift. Why?"

He walked over and held out his hand, requesting the weapon. She complied and watched as he flipped the button. "Little red dot means it's ready to fire. You may have occasion to use it."

Andrea took it back, staring out at all the gorgers on the other side of the doors. "Good to know."

* * *

Sage opened a heavy metal door leading into another section of the underground tunnel. Glenn followed closely, shining the light as best he could so they could see. With only a few steps down, they came upon the barred-off sewer tunnel.

"Can we cut through it?" Glenn asked as they examined the bars.

"Not with the hacksaw," replied Sage. "This is blowtorch territory. So unless you know where we can get one, this isn't a way out."

She paused at the sound of crunching and glanced down to see a gorger feasting on the rat. It turned, half of the rodent's insides falling out of its mouth as its arms wildly reached through the bars. Glenn jumped back at the sound of the gorger's shrill growl and the sight of the gutted rat in one of its hands.

"Keep the light on its face," Sage told Glenn, gripping the hilts of her seaxes. He obeyed and winced when she cut off the arm to get it out of the way, seeing that it still held the stub out at the bars. Sage plunged the blade into his forehead and pulled it out as the gorger slumped back to the floor. She crouched, cupping the foggy water from the puddles to rinse some of the blood off her special swords, and sighed, "There's no other way out of this."

* * *

Jade pushed racks of clothes against the doors as close together as possible. Once she made a fence of them, Jade took scarf after scarf to tie them all as tightly together as she could. A fatal crack echoed from _all_ the outer doors. She froze, staring into the dead eyes on the other side of the glass. Time was up. Any minute they'd be crashing through and banging on the second set of doors. Jade looked over her shoulder to see Rick and Andrea talking about a necklace for Amy. At least they were preoccupied. Better that than in her way. She hurried and tied off the linked racks on the far-side door hinges with the metal chain straps she ripped from two purses. Ensuring it could hold for more than 30 seconds, Jade wrapped shoelaces deeply into the metal crevices, then securely weaved and knotted them into the chain straps to hook it all onto the racks. It was nowhere near resembling a fix for their problems crashing through like the uninvited guest at a private party, but there was a chance it would give them a crucial two – maybe even three – minute head start in running to safety.

Right as she was looking over her barricade, the glass shattered. All four parts of the first set of doors splintered one after the other, creating an open gateway for all the gorgers to flow in. The second set of doors jarred under the pressure but remained closed. Jade stiffened, grasping the middle handle of her sword, as Rick ran up next to her with his python raised. Morales was next to appear, then Jacqui. Glenn ran over to the back as Sage ran to the other side of Jade, taking in the precautionary fence.

"What did you find down there?" Rick asked, not taking his eyes off the doors.

"It's not our way out," replied Sage.

"We need to find a way… and soon."

The twins twisted their heads at Andrea with a not-so-pleased expression to her response, or to how she was half holding her gun. Releasing their weapons hold and without a word, they walked away from the group and headed back up the stairwell. They waited for the door to bang closed behind them so they'd know when the rest were following. Sage peered her eyes over to her sister and asked, "How is this gonna work?"

"Nothing can work unless we've got transport. Walking isn't an option. Not with all of them."

"Jade, unless you know about a car that's big enough fit everyone, we're gonna have to consider walking. It'll get easier once we're beyond the fence."

She stopped on the steps and started at Sage. "Beyond the fence."

Realization sparked in her grey eyes and she gasped, "The trucks!"

The door below quickly opened as the group came in to climb the stairs. The twins ran the rest of the way up and immediately went to the edge of the roof. Jade pointed far down the street to the construction site where a Ferenc truck was waiting just on the other side of the fence. The others stood with them, Rick looking out with binoculars.

"It looks like it'll still run. We can hotwire it," Sage said over the faint rumbling of thunder.

"We shouldn't have to," Rick replied. "They always keep keys on hand."

Morales looked down to the street where hundreds of the dead aimlessly walked. "You'll never make it past the gorgers."

"You got me out of that tank," Rick suggested as the twins shared a knowing glance.

"Yeah, but they were feeding. They were distracted."

"Can we distract them again?"

"We don't need to distract them," Jade spoke up, gaining the confused but undivided attention of the group. "We need to sneak through them. We know how."

"Hold on," Glenn jumped in, looking from one sister to the other. "Sneak _through_ them? You can't! Not without them seeing, hearing, or smelling you. It's impossible! You'll get eaten for sure."

"It doesn't matter if they see or hear us," Sage explained. "As long as they don't smell us."

"How the hell are you gonna manage that?" Morales asked.

Jade and Sage glanced at each other and replied, "You're not gonna like it."

* * *

They brought everyone back down to the store for the sisters to gather supplies: rubber gloves, overcoats, headgear, axes. Rick and Jacqui were on board enough to help, but the rest just stared. Glenn watched Jade and Sage put on pants and shirts that were at least two sizes too big over their existing outfits and said, "If bad ideas were an Olympic event, this would take the gold."

"He's right. Just stop, okay?" Morales pleaded with Rick. "Take some time to think this through."

"They've done this before. They know it works."

"With this many geeks? We don't know what they went through when they did this before!"

"It doesn't matter. The walkers already got through one set of doors and that glass won't hold forever. They wouldn't have suggested this if it didn't work. Trust them."

Rick threw a coat and gloves over to Glenn before catching the twins' eyes. They were surprised, at a loss for how to respond for defending them. Instead of trying, they secured their belts to stop the pants from falling and headed outside. Everyone waited on the other side of the door. Jade and Sage each grabbed a gorger by the ankles and lifted the legs just enough to easily slide them across the ground and into the building. When they dropped the rotting bodies on the floor, everyone stared.

Sage readied the axe and just as she was going to bring it down, Rick grabbed the handle. "What the hell?" she asked, startled by his action, but steadied her voice at the look on his face. "I know this isn't something you _want_ to do, but it's something we _have_ to do."

"I know," Rick whispered as he bent down to the gorger and started going through his pockets. He pulled out the wallet, looking through its contents, and said, "Wayne Dunlap. Georgia license. Born in 1979." Rick handed the ID to Glenn and continued, "He had $28 in his pocket when he died…and a picture of a pretty girl. "With love, from Rachel." He used to be like us. Worrying about bills or the rent or the Super Bowl. If I ever find my family, I'm gonna tell them about Wayne. And –" He looked over to the other body to see Sage finishing going through its pockets.

"Jonathan Webb. Georgia. 1968. $40. Family photo: wife, two daughters, and a son."

Rick nodded as they got to their feet and softly said, "Wayne and Jonathan."

Sage put everything into a quick memorial pile on a nearby shelf and then readied her axe again, only to be paused by Glenn saying, "One more thing, Wayne was an organ donor."

Jade smiled and placed a hand on Glenn's shoulder. For a moment, it was quiet and almost felt normal. Then Sage finally brought the axe down on Jonathan, splitting the ribcage open. Everyone groaned and swore in disgust as she continued and it only got worse when Rick began chopping up Wayne with the second axe. Sage hacked off the limbs after cracking open its chest cavity and Rick followed suit. When it was over, Rick had his moment to collect himself, but Jade immediately went down into the corpses. Before anyone could say a word, her gloved hands were practically elbow deep in guts.

"I am so gonna hurl," said Glenn, leaning over his knees.

"Later." Rick replied. "Everybody got gloves?"

No one answered. They just watched.

Jade clumped handfuls of chopped and oozing organs out of the gorger and wiped them all over the front of Sage's shirt. Once that was drenched in spoiled blood, she worked down the sleeves and over her shoulders to finally cover all of Sage's back. Glenn covered his mouth and Rick winced when Sage took off her gloves, pressed her hands in the blood, and then ran her fingers down her cheeks.

"Don't get any in your eyes, nose, ears, or mouth. If you have an exposed cut, don't even risk it. Stay away."

They all nodded to Jade as she and Sage began painting their pants in the putrefied guts. Soon, the rest of them all dug their own hands into Wayne in order to cover Rick and Glenn in his entrails. Their groaning of pure discomfort only got worse as the rotting smell multiplied in their nostrils. Sage added one intact intestine around her neck as she finished soaking her sister's shirt with the chunks and pools of blood.

"Oh god! Oh jeez. Oh, this is bad," Glenn cried out as more and more was spread onto his coat. "This is really bad!"

"Think about something else," offered Rick. "Puppies and kittens."

"Dead puppies and kittens," T-Dog mumbled.

But Glenn heard. He turned away from his friends and hurled on the floor. Andrea turned to T-Dog and said, "That is just evil. What is wrong with you?"

"Next time let the cracker beat his ass," Jacqui told Rick.

T-Dog looked to Glenn and apologized, "I'm sorry, yo."

"You _suck_!"

Jade went over to Glenn and gently placed an intestine around his neck. She then bent down to look him in the eyes and said softly, "You're with us now. We'll make you a warrior, but you have to stand up." Glenn blinked at her and nervously nodded. He straightened his back and looked into Jade's unfazed eyes. She took off her gloves and pressed her hands on his thickly bloodied chest and then carefully wiped them off on his neck. Smiling at his grimace, Jade gathered more blood from her shirt and ran her fingers down her cheeks. "You got this."

Sage went up to Rick, hands soaked with liquid guts, and spread it all around his neck too. He had to lift his head to get away from the sickening sensation, but nodded to her in thanks. "Will this be enough?"

"Jade and I are soaked in this shit, _with_ intestines around our necks, so we have enough. You two," she frowned at seeing they had about half the amount of guts covering their coats and finished, "need a lot more especially since you're not covering your pants."

"All right," Rick responded and then turned back to the group saying, "If we make it back, be ready."

"What about Merle Dixon?" asked T-Dog.

Rick reached into his pocket and handed him the key to the handcuffs. Putting his gloves back on, he looked to Sage and announced, "She said we need–we need more guts."

* * *

Jade and Sage walked through the door first so Rick and Glenn could watch their movements. There were still only two gorgers in the alley and slowly, they shuffled closer. Jade and Sage limped forward, dragging their left legs across the ground and bent their opposite shoulders, ready to swing their swords if it came to that. Rick and Glenn were only a couple feet behind them, mimicking their movements. When they walked past the gorgers, the twins moaned and received no attention from them. Glenn openly gritted his teeth in fear while avoiding the milky glances. Rick kept his anxious eyes sharp on them in order to see an attack coming, but none came.

Reaching the bus, Jade and Sage sloppily yet silently fell to the ground and began to crawl underneath. With Glenn on Jade's right and Rick on Sage's left, they all made it to the street. They were astonished at how the sister's plan of hiding in plain sight worked. All the gorgers, whether they walked or crawled, didn't notice them all. The further they went down the street, the less fearful Rick and Glenn became. It was as if the dead looked right through them, even if they sniffed the air close to them, the four remained invisible.

Jade crooked her neck to look at Glenn and very softly groaned, "Told you," and winked. Glenn rolled his eyes, but there was a slight smile through his awkward grunt.

As thunder rumbled louder, the girls briefly looked up at the sky. It was darkening, but only overhead. There would be a short downpour soon. Sage quickened her pace, but not so fast as to out-walk the dead. Just out maneuver. Jade followed in her path, looking at Glenn and Rick to do the same. Within moments, the clouds burst and rain fell hard. Moistening chunks of flesh and guts dropped piece by piece onto the road, blood thinning and flowing off their clothes. Jade's eyes darted around at the closest gorgers to see which ones would be closest to attack while Sage gripped her seaxe prepared to slice anything that was close.

The gorgers started to growl, started to search for the new scent. Glenn looked to Jade and asked, "The smell's washing off. Isn't it?"

"Easy," Jade growled. "Almost there."

A gorger behind Rick suddenly roared and lunged for him, but the sheriff turned around and imbedded the axe in its head. "Run!" he yelled and they all bolted for the fence. Every corpse on the street began fumbling after them. Jade and Sage ran for the smaller mob in front and cut as many down as possible, and the ones they missed were killed by Rick and Glenn. Thankfully, the gorgers were no where near fast enough to catch them at a run…but they didn't tire so when the four got to the fence, each threw their weapons over and climbed up the chain link as fast as possible. Once they were momentarily safe on the other side, Rick and Glenn threw off their coats and wiped the blood from their necks. Jade and Sage began tearing off their bloodied clothes, but jumped out of them when the gorgers violently pressed up against the fence.

There were too many to stab through the chain links, so the sisters grabbed their weapons and ran for the truck. Rick stopped and pulled out his gun, killing nine to prevent the fence from being knocked down right away. Glenn went for the keys and tossed them to Rick. Sage looked back to see one gorger squeezing its way through the opening and shot it before it made it through. Jade waited at the truck and once they were all in, slammed the door. Rick started the engine and wasted no time in speeding the hell out of there as the gorgers broke the fence completely down and were charging in. Rick drove them on the path out of the city in order to lead the gorgers away, but it wouldn't be enough.

"Oh my god! Oh my god! They're all over that place!" Glenn cried out.

Rick glanced at him and commanded, "You need to draw them away. Those roll-up doors at the front of the store – that area? – that's what I need cleared." Glenn began to stutter, not understanding, but Rick continued, "Raise your friends. Tell them to get down there and be ready."

"And I'm drawing the gorgers away how? I–I missed that part."

"Noise."

 **~/~**

Rick smashed in a window with the crowbar and the car alarmed blared so loudly Glenn had to cover his ears. Jade winced as she watched one end of the street, Sage impatiently watching the other. Rick was soon in the car and starting it with a screwdriver. As the engine revved to life, he got out and said, "Glenn you drive and Jade you go with him in case something goes wrong." They nodded and drove out to lead the gorgers away. Sage hopped back into the truck with Rick, all heading to the store.

Glenn got on the walkie and said, "Those roll-up doors at the front of the store facing the street – meet us there and be ready." He zoomed ahead of the truck and came to a harsh stop at the building. Tires screeched as he backed up, collecting all the gorgers at the hood of the car.

"Get closer, get closer. Come on, come on!" yelled Glenn as he screeched in reverse again. When they started to pile up on the sides, Jade yelled back, "Let's go!" He stepped on the gas and flipped them around in order to drive away. All gorgers chased after them as best they could so after a few moments, Rick was able to drive up in the truck. He reversed up to the doors and as soon as he stopped, Sage went into the back and rolled up the door. She banged on the store's to let the others know they were there and it immediately went up.

"We gotta go!" Rick yelled from the driver's seat as they all threw the bags into the truck. One by one, they each lifted themselves into the truck. Sage waited by the corner for the last member of the group, but Merle wasn't there. "Is that everyone?" Rick shouted over his shoulder. While the others replied with loud and panicked yes's, Sage heard the growls sounding from the hall. The barricade must've broken. No more waiting. She shut the truck's door and yelled, "Go!"

Rick slammed on the gas and drove as fast as he could down the street and out of the city. Sage walked through the shaking legs of everyone sitting on the floor and plopped herself into the passenger seat. She smeared the blood streaks off her face with the back of her hands and then wiped it on her pants. Rick glanced back at all of them and then realized why Sage had been waiting by the door.

T-Dog took in a shaky breath and said, "I dropped the damn key."

As Rick brought his eyes back to the road, he caught sight of Sage. She was looking right at him, the sun reflecting off her blade and shining in her eyes. For a moment, he thought she was angry. But then she looked out the window and muttered, "You're not an idiot." He frowned at her, but when she peered back with a smirk on her face, Rick couldn't help but chuckle.

"Where's Glenn and Jade?" asked Andrea.

* * *

On the highway out of Atlanta, the only sound that could be heard was an earsplitting car alarm and the music threatening to break the speakers.

 _Now when I was a little boy  
At the age of five…  
I had something in my pocket  
Keeps a lot of folks alive…_

Glenn raced down the open lanes, going at least 100 miles per hour. "Whoo-hoo-hoo! Yeah-hoo-hoo!" Jade laughed and stuck her arm out the window, screaming with him.

 _You know, baby  
We can have a lot of fun…_

* * *

There's Chapter 2! I hope you guys enjoyed it. Another note for you, Jade and Sage's behavior and actions are going to drastically change by the end of the next couple of chapters and for the better, so please keep reading the story and as I said above, if you like it – review! – it's very motivating for me. Thanks!


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